May 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - we reach the end!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here's the spreadsheet for its final outing

I hope that the last 8 weeks have been successful - and also enjoyable! - and I look forward to seeing the final results on the spreadsheet.

@Lougle I saw your update on the last thread, and I'm very, very pleased for you

The next Bootcamp will start at the end of July (I'll post a sign-up thread in a couple of weeks), but in the meantime, we'll keep this chat thread going.

Loads of things you could have there @StuntNun! I thought you were going to link to a menu that was just pizza and pasta.

If it were me, I'd have Melanzane or Funghi to start

For a main, the Firenze salad - but I'd have to check what the house dressing was. Often you can ask for oil/vinegar on the side. If I didn't go for a salad, I'd have either the lamb shank or the sea bass, but would ask for another vegetable to replace the potatoes.

The salads all seem to have avocado in.

I think any of the main courses look good and just ask them to swap out the potatoes for something else. They have creamy spinach, green beans or Mediterranean vegetables as side options.

At Sarti's (Glasgow's best Italian restaurant ), they serve up lovely garlicky spinach/greens instead of potatoes and never charge extra.

I'm sure you could ask to leave out the avocado.

Proud mum. Ds wearing his 21st present outfit for the 1st time. Covid meant that there wasn't a PIR Ball this year for him to wear it to - but his graduation is as good a time as any!

He'd look a lot better without that bag over his head

I didn't think it was fair on him to post a picture of him on this public forum. He looked very good through

Nice outfit!

Just came to be in here :) I was not able to do LC pretty much since last Wed, travel and weekend away. And I have two sets of guests staying over from Thu. So will have to stick with LC for Lunch and whatever for dinner! Otherwise I would end up cooking 24 hours and my fridge would be more like a supermarket shelf!
happy news is after a three day break, walking more than 10k steps each day, I have only put on 1lbs. Will get back fully on track asap. But July BC doesn’t seem doable at the moment

Looking good pretty bird and headless son.
I'm just packing up for van trip, excited/anxious (mainly because every thing makes me anxious at the minute. Thank god it's cooled down a bit.
My friend has agreed to stay at mine to watch dogs/dds next Monday night so me and dh can go somewhere in the van on our actual own 😱

But @Newlease why can't you cook LC meals for your guests?

I love the challenge of cooking gourmet low carb meals for guests, such that they'd never know. But then I love cooking

I might cook extra roast or boiled potatoes, but that's about it.

I made a low carb almond meringue roulade (with raspberries and cinnamon) a couple of weeks ago that worked well - an adaptation of the meringue roulade that I'd already posted up on the Desserts and other sweet things recipe thread. It worked really well - I need to write it up and add it. The almonds gave it a nice crunch that the "ordinary" low carb meringue roulade lacks (to the extent that I'd suggest rolling it while it is still warm and then unrolling it again)

Thing is, @prettybird and @Newlease, they don't have to be gourmet meals either!

Baked salmon (marinated in olive oil and lemon juice) with a green salad and ratatouille would be perfect.

Or:

Spanish chicken (chorizo, olives, tomato, shallots and garlic) with roasted broccoli

Or:

Moussaka (from the recipe thread) with a salad

Or:

A chef's salad - basically a big salad with whatever you have in the fridge! I made one last night which was mixed leaves, diced cheddar, fried diced pancetta, hard boiled eggs, cucumber, asparagus, radishes and cherry tomatoes.

I'd be more than happy to cook any of these for any guests.

Ah but @BIWI - to many people, even your suggestions are "gourmet" meals . People have got so out of the habit of cooking "good" (easy) meals from scratch

Well yes, I do see that - but baking a piece of salmon in the oven, or frying some mince to make a moussaka really isn't that hard.

Nor is throwing together a 'what do I have in the fridge' salad!

(I agree with you about people not cooking any more though)

One of my favourite "easy" meals is Boursin stuffed chicken breast wrapped in Parma/Serrano ham and baked with a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice and a few garlic cloves. Takes minutes to prepare and is really tasty. Dh has it with rice while I do myself a FLGV.

I'm going to make boerewors for Sunday (if the weather is still nice so that we can have a braai) as Monday is Nelson Mandela Day. Will need to think of some nice salads to go with it. My dad will need to bring across his Kenwood Chef as his mincer/sausage maker attachment works better than my KitchenAid

@ditavonteesed leave your anxiety on the parking spot and go into your campervan without it. No need to worry, it will all be there when you get back (if you want to pick it up again or maybe the sun will have melted some of it away)

LIke @prettybird I love the challenge of making 'this' way of eating work for me in challenging situations. This weekend I've had various combinations of vegetarian dc2, pescetarian dc1, lactose free dgc2, fussy dgc1, big hungry meat-eating dh. And me. Meals where I was bringing the starter (and having to navigate my way round the main); a picnic that I was 90% in charge of (so I just avoided the banana bread cake); Dinner that was Thai veg and I could miss the rice. A big breakfast table where everyone ate what they wanted.

I appreciate that I am incredibly fortunate in being able to make this work. That I love cooking, and so do my dc, and that in the midst of the challenging inflationary period I can afford it. But both my dc live on very restricted budgets and they still manage to make great meals packed with veg.

I worked out quite early on that if I made a traditional 'carb, meat and vegetable' meal, I could happily just leave out the carb element for me and I'd be fine.

I haven't cracked puddings yet. I don't like sweeteners and most recipes for low carb puddings involve sweeteners.

Oh! I know we're not officially bootcamping right now (although with the exception of some strawberries, I'm still KOKO) but I've almost lost 1½ stones (¼lb off) since we started, which I'm pretty pleased about!

I'm no cook but love entertaining.

My go to for 'pudding' now is to have a really good cheeseboard, with crackers / grapes / celery / chutney as usual and add a 'sweet board' with dates, Turkish delight, almond cookies, wrapped squares of chocolate and bitter mints.

Offer port / coffee / mint tea pretty much covers the bases.

Very little trouble. I'm usually to busy to bother with anything other than the Mint tea but glad to know I could have a square of chocolate if I wanted it. I mostly overeat when I'm bored / lonely so entertaining is perfect for me.

Starters typically seafood / Mayo / avocado. Slice lemon / sprinkle parsley.

Mains either salmon / homemade hollandaise greens (and lots for those that don't know any better ) or fillet of beef with bearnaise and salad of tomatoes/avo/mixed leaves Or mixed greens as above.

My mother taught me to have one wow thing (home made squad / Mayo so I can also be sure it's low carb ) and only one thing that needs last minute attention (Grill salmon / roast beef fillet) Simples.

Just read your brilliant post @Lougle

Congratulations on the 1.5 loss

Great loss @Lougle, well done you 👏

I'm plateauing at the moment but mainly keeping on the straight and narrow and happy with that. Will do a weight check in tomorrow!

That's brilliant @Lougle! And you really didn't believe it was going to happen at the beginning, did you?!

Has anyone experienced weight gain/bloating with this hot weather. I have been sticking to plan consistently and drinking loads of water, but have gained 2lbs. Logically I know it can't be fat gain, but still frustrating.

Disturbed sleep due to the heat may play a part as well @BrandNewBicep